WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A local artist found nearly three decades' worth of National Geographic magazines along the road. It took eight years, but she finally developed a creative idea of what to do with them.
T.A. Walker is "Shining A Light" on her "Expedition Project" and how she hopes to connect the community to our past so we can understand our future.
Inside the rough and ready Northwood Art and Music Warehouse is artist Mad.E, who is still ideating about her National Geographic project which started eight years ago when she hit paydirt.
"So [I was] driving down the road my hometown, Vienna, Virginia, and saw a bunch of stuff on the side of the road. So I pulled over and there was this big blue tarp about a tower this high. And I'm like, oh, what's under there? And it was these National Geographic books," Mad.E said.
She found about 360 magazines from 1982 to 2016.
"First of all, I used to want to work for National Geographic. So this is interesting that I just stumbled upon these," said Mad.E.
Then she had a notion. What if from each edition she made multiple collages on 6x6 vinal sheets?
"With all the 360-plus books that I have, it's a lot of paper. So I suspect there to be over 10,000 of these," Mad.E pointed at about two dozen dangling collages. "This right here is not even a quarter of one book."
Worried about taking on the project herself, she come up with a unique plan.
"I decided to open the project to the public. So actually, these collages right here, these are made by people in the community, starting here in West Palm, but I plan to take this project to different states," Mad.E said.
She started to form ideas about what the installation would mean to people.
"Showing that that history, kind of, you know, repeats itself, but it's a different rhyme, but it's also bringing people together. And I heard this one little phrase, cultivating connection, but it's also about who you sit next to or across from. When you're creating this it could be somebody, you know, you don't know, but you're sharing information," Mad.E.
You can join her on her quest to create 10,000 colleges. Every Thursday evening in September she is hosting sessions at the Northwood Art and Music Warehouse starting at 4 p.m.
The Northwood Art and Music Warehouse is located at 933 28th Street in West Palm Beach.
